The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1887-10-05
TIE AGRICULTURAL. C0LLEjUt..
CAPTAIN TILLNAN'S REVIEW OF rHG
-. ARGUMENTS on THE QUESTION.

SAJI-IiN IlLI1NN - S.E-h IE w Va : -
-. ARGUMENTS on TIE QUESTION.
He Invites . Eun Discussion of the Subject
and Predicts a Victory for the Friends o;
the Proposed Institutions.
To the Editor OF the News and Courier:
In my previous letters l have at one tlm2
or another answered or forestalled every
argument which has ever been advanced
against the separate agricultural college,
and i is disagreeable to have to so over
the same ground again. But the ol'no-
nents Of such 4 school IN South Carolina,
who realize and see that the idea is gain
ing ground rapidly and surely, continue
to repeat the threadbare and GnteEasle
arguments against it that have at various
times been advanced by "Caroinian, "
Capt. Paul Hammond and Others. I
therefore feel constrained to again take
part in the controversy" or ''dlscus-
sion," whichever it may be called.
1t is gratifying to note the fact tina: we
have driven our adversaries to ahal-don
tier first mode of attack, in which ridi-
cule and personal abuse were mainly
relied upon. 3D." the latest knight
who couches lance in behalf of the
waning cause of the agricultural annex,
andwhose articles have recently appeared
in The News and Courier, says the cues
lion of the education of our youths
should be approached seriously, graveei5y'
earnestly, reverently." Most assured!y,
and I agree with him that, IL dealing
With this question, s'a blunder may be
worse than a crime" Iconte0d tia: the
llunder and crime both have oeeE al
ready committed, and that alone has
moved me to undertake and continue the
agitation known as the FARMERS move
ment." If I have at times oyerstepped
the bounds of that serious, candid, dis
passionate discussion" for which 80.
pleads, have had proyocation enoegh,
as your readers well know, and l have
always acted on the defensive. [ claim
to have been actuated by an ''earnest,
patriotic spirit, and with reason, facts
and arguments to fully sustain my posi-
tior. I have only INDUCED in iavectl1e
or sarcasm to repel personal assaults, OF
when felt that the injustice pract!ced
against farmers required merlted rebuke.
7 and all the friends Of real farmers
college and Of agricultural advancement
a South Carolina are ready and Anxious
. meet our antagonists IN falr debate,
>hether in the newspapers or before the
people, and we challenge them to '.Joint
disc7-ssion" OF the issues presented. we
have nothing to lose and every thing TO
gain by such discussion, and wblle
their trained intellects and oratorical
ability may ard does give them the I'D
vantage, relying on common sense and
the Justice of our cause, We court the
contest. Truth breads darkness rather
than light, and we feel that we have beth
truth and justice on our side.
As Chairman of the Executive C2no-
mittee of the Farmers Association, l
hereby extend an invitation and challenge
to the Board of Trustees Of the South
Carolina College AID to the Board OF
Agriculture to appoint speakers to repre-
sent them, and We will do likewise; and
We will further agree to get up mass
meetings of farmers to hear the cause
and decide who is right. twill come to
this at last, and it had just as well come
to it at once; for, as CD. says: "So9th
Carolina mas always been and probably
ALWAYS will be an agricultural State. ard
it is a manifest necessity that this prob
lem be solved with correctness and solved
with dispatch. "
The wise disposition of the Hatch ap-
preparation, which will devolve upon the
Legislature at the next session, renders
il all the more necessary that no more
mistakes be made; and II the lawyers
and 'sshe once lordly planters" expect to
waste that money as the land scrip tuna
and privilege tay are now being wasted,
and SIS the two experimental stations
promise to waste it, it must be after an
other election has shown that the major
ity of the farmers are Of their own way
Of thinking. twill not do to rely upon
the esprit de corps of the lawyers IL the
Senate to decide the matter contrary to
the wishes of the common farmers.
Many of the "once lordly planters" are
now common farmers, conscious OF the
errors of their own training, and Ecur-
bonism will yet learn that neither class
partisansh;p nor political tr!ckery can
shake Us of. Let sd" and his friends
who are fighting to sustain the ':anneH
and agricultural bureau, meet US on the
stamp and allow the whole case to be
presented. If tie farmers then decide
that the South Carolina College shall
stand as it is, We will submit, but not
till then.
In the meantime, I will endeavor TO
answer the arguments sd. has preseated
IS going to show that the South Carolina
College is now carrying out the Federal
law II good faith, ard fulfilling Its re-
ouirements more fully than the Agrlcul-
fural and Mechanical College Of Missis.
sippi.' In the first place, until this
agitation began there was really no aSrt:
cultural or mechanical feature attacnect
to the South Carolina College. President
McBryde's executive duties absorbed ell
his time and energies, and nothing has
been done and no change made IN the
curriculum since August, 1855, except to
employ an adjunct professor OF agrleui-
tnre and erect q small machine shop IL
which applied mechanics are taught %
the naval officer who Is detailed by TIE
United States Government for that pur-
pose. Everything else is or the sa.0
old basis, and the whole bias and effect
Of the training has been towards tb%
professions and away from the farm; arc
5ba FORT canrOt he denied that the mC-